The Rochester community presented a united front during a lobbying trip to Albany Monday.

The eight-member contingent from the Rochester Community Coalition met with representatives of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the local state Senate and state Assembly delegations, and the leaders of each house.

"It went well. We're very optimistic," said University of Rochester President, Joel Seligman, a member of the coalition and co-chair of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council.

The group making the trip included Mark Peterson, Greater Rochester Enterprise president and CEO; Jennifer Leonard, Rochester Area Community Foundation president and CEO; Bill Destler, president of Rochester Institute of Technology; Ken Warner, executive director of Unions and Business United in Construction (UNICON); and Sandra Parker, Rochester Business Alliance president and CEO.

Justin Feasel, Monroe County's communications director, and Robert Franklin, the county's finance director, made the trip as representatives of County Executive Maggie Brooks. Neither Brooks nor Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren participated, though they initially were on the list of attendees.

This was the ninth year that Parker has led the group in the annual pilgrimage to the state Capitol. While many communities lobby the state government, the Rochester coalition is different from other efforts.

"Yes, there are groups going to Albany, everybody with their own issue. But with this one you've got people from all aspects of the community focusing in on five or six items essentially," she said.

"We've got a pretty good track record in terms of getting the 'asks.' In many cases it takes more than one year. In many cases it takes two, maybe three years, but we're continuing to push on it," Parker said.

This year, the group focused on a push for a new formula to calculate aid to municipalities. Under the current formula, Rochester is getting almost $42 million less than Buffalo in per capita assistance, according to the coalition.

They also sought increased funding for graduate medical education, the Center of Excellence in Sustainable Manufacturing at Rochester Institute of Technology, and state funding for a proposed Center of Excellence for Data Science at the University of Rochester.

The coalition also is seeking more funding for the Pollution Prevention Institute at RIT and he City School District's facilities modernization project.

Leonard said the non-profit community and Monroe County are working together to seek a $6.5 million increase in state funding for child care.

Monroe County has lost more than 7,200 child care slots since 2001, Leonard said. Since 2004, the cost, per slot, for child care, has increased more than 50 percent. The additional state funding would add almost 1,000 slots and restore child care availability to 2010 levels.

"High quality child care helps both the children and the parents. The children, long-term, are more likely to be taxpayers, less likely to go to prison or use welfare. The parents are more likely to stay at work and to be more productive and are less likely to be reprimanded for something going wrong at work," Leonard said.